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6 ways to go green on campus
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400 billion: number of copies made per year at American companies.
1 billion: number of water bottles that end up in landfills per year…in California alone.
62,860: number of trees cut in order to generate enough pulp to produce a single edition of the New York Times Sunday edition.
If you are alarmed by these statistics, there are many ways to contribute to the go-green movement. With the go-green movement relatively new in trend, many Americans did not grow up in a household that enforced go-green efforts. However, it is never too late to start. Living on your own for the first time as a college student is a great opportunity to begin putting recycling habits into practice.
Six simple ways to go green while in college:
- Look for recycling bins on campus. If recycling bins are not accessible, you can start your own within your residence hall. All paper, plastic and glass bottles, cardboard packaging from food and plastic bags can be recycled. Local school, grocery store, library and church parking lots have recycling bins to dump your goods. If you are really feeling inspired by the go-green movement, you can talk to your Resident Assistant about getting recycling bins set up within the residence hall.
- Don’t forget to recycle your old cell phones/TV's/laptops. Needles to say, electronics do not biodegrade.
- Rather than return from the store with several plastic bags, take a few of your own canvas bags. Two benefits: you will not be contributing to the abundance of plastic bags that end up in landfills and canvas bags are a lot sturdier...no more groceries breaking through the bag on your walk home!
- Think twice before printing. Before printing lecture notes or an article that will only be read once, try reading the file on your computer. You’ll save paper, ink and time commuting to your nearest campus computer lab.
- Carry a reusable water bottle instead of purchasing water bottles daily. Look for bottles that are BPA free. BPA is a pesky organic compound found in most plastics that has been linked to several serious health risks such as obesity, cancer risks and neurological issues.
- Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. These low cost investments (approximately $2.00 each) can save over $45 per bulb over the course of the bulb’s life. Even if you are not paying the electric bill for your residence hall, there are plenty of environmental positives in terms of saving energy.
Contrary to belief, going green does not have to be costly. There are many free ways to help the environment. If you want to start small, recycling paper goods is a very simple way to make a huge difference for the environment. The EPA reports only 37% of paper gets recycled…have you recycled today?
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